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State of The Industry 2021 was a pretty good year for the Connector and Cable assembly industry, considering  COVID put a huge crimp in the economy in general and right now the industry is dealing with  raw materials shortages, and longer than normal delivery times, but the electronics industry in general is exploding right now, which is very good for the interconnection industry, there are so many new applications in most every sector of the electronics industry  right now, 2022 should be an excellent growth year for the industry. Take the Automotive industry for instance, yes in the last 20 years there has been a lot of electronics being put into cars and trucks but there are so many new applications everything from  new electronic gadgets for passengers from the latest wi-fi technology, to sophisticated stereo and video systems and convenience systems for drivers such as remote starting, remote un locking of doors, hands free parrel parking and safety systems like lane departure warning, automatic braking, 360 cameras, Lidar and radar systems for autonomous cars as well as maintenance  systems for monitoring of everything from low tire pressure, wear of brake pads, oil pressure, water temperature, oil changes etc. and then hooking it all up to the internet. Just think about the number of connectors and cables needed to enable all of those applications, and that’s just the Automotive industry,..

September 2022 State of The Industry In 2022 sales for the electronic connector industry continues the strong growth from 2021 when sales for the industry were up roughly 24% globally over 2020,  year-to-date billings are up almost 10% so bookings for new business remain very robust, while shortages of some components, particularly in the semiconductor area, continue to put a crimp in availability of not only automobiles, but also a wide range of consumer devices, computers, appliances, and many other electronic products. Even with the shortages, which includes a wide range of raw materials and, in some regions of the world, labor, connector manufacturers are still for the most part meeting their delivery dates. This growth continues to be driven by the continued integration of electronics of all kinds into Automobiles, for everything from Bluetooth connectivity to requirements for various safety features, like lane departure systems, automatic braking systems, systems to enable self-driving vehicles and increasingly robust passenger entertainment systems.  As well as the growth of a new age of high-tech farming equipment and systems, from using drones for pest control, and applying fertilizers  and embedded sensors that monitor soil conditions, robotic milking systems and automated harvesting systems as well as the continued proliferation of self-driving farm equipment, and like in the Automotive industry the continued electrification of all systems on every type of farm equipment from Tractors to harvesters..

State of The Industry As we close out the first half of 2023 business for the electronic connector industry has slowed significantly for the first two quarters, with most segments of the industry reporting flat sales with little to no growth, worldwide sales in fact are down slightly for the first quarter of the year, with the only exception being the defense industry which is still very busy. This slowdown is attributable to several factors, first COVID shutdowns have affected the supply chain for a number of basic components such as semi-conductors although that has improved a great deal here in 2023, demand for computers, laptops and other electronic equipment which during the shutdowns were booming because of so many people setting up home offices, have slowed dramatically because of a lack of demand. Another clear sign that the connector industry is entering a down business cycle is layoff announcements from big tech companies. 199,047 layoffs have already been announced in 2023, compared to 164,576 in all of 2022. Some of the largest U.S.-based companies are reducing staff. Among these are 3M, Meta, Dell, Cisco, IBM, Google, Microsoft, etc. This has also effected the job market for the electronic connector industry, as many companies have slowed down their hiring, and on the openings that do exist, companies are having a hard time finding candidates. The good news is that electronic..